Dear All,
 
It is normal that I have four or five books in the process of reading  at 
the same time(!), and getting back last night to (most other reading delayed  
due to that excellent new vol. on Shrops. mining), the Special Reports of 
the  Min. Res. of GB - Vol.XXVI, Lead & Zinc Ores, Durham, Yorks. &  Derbs., 
with Notes on the Isle of Man, Carruthers & Strahan,  1923 - post the 
following from a text footnote:- 
 
"In the Gang Mine, whence a slickenside runs through the vein, the miner  
avails himself of a curious property attending such veins by drawing laces,  
stoops, or nicks, at about six inches apart and four inches deep, with the 
point  of his pick, from top to bottom of his face of work, which he then 
leaves for  several hours, and on his return finds all the vein-stuff so 
furrowed, speeled,  or slappeted off, and laying on the sole ready got to his 
hands,"  (This  text is quoted as being from Farey, p.367 - I maybe should know, 
but  does anyone know what Farey vol. this could be???). 
 
Can't quite tell the date of when this might have occurred, but think it to 
 be between 1811 and 1830 - or therabouts.
 
Another ref. in the same vol. (pp.49), refers to "When one of the surfaces, 
 possessing the grooving and polish known as slickenside, was pierced with 
a  pick, it rent with violence and exploded with a crackling noise. Mawe 
relates  that he saw a man, 'when he came out of the mine, only a few minutes 
after the  explosion, who, regardless of the danger, had pierced the sides of 
this  substance, and who was much hurt, and cut violently, as if stabbed 
about the  neck and other places with chisel". The same is quoted in this vol. 
(& as I  have already mentioned in prev. Posts), as occurring in some of 
the mines around  Eyam as well. The date of this quote is uncertain, but I 
would suspect it to be  around the same date as the previous.
 
I hope of interest to someone.
 
Regards, Bernard